A non-commercial guide to organic gardening in the mid-Atlantic states, with some specifics to central Virginia..and some information applicable across the country! Or to other time zones! Across the seas! Who knew?
"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden." Thomas Jefferson

Central Virginia Organic Gardener

"And 'tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes." - William Wordsworth, 1798

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Cold Snap? Take Cover!

We are expecting a bit of a cold snap here in central Virginia over the next few days (maybe a low of 39) and, sacre bleu! I have just planted my tomatoes and eggplants! What to do? Well, it was seeming to me to be a bit late to plant these vegetables, but they, eggplants especially, do not like nighttime temperatures below 50. So, I whipped out my handy, inexpensive. plastic row tunnels (see left photo) and covered up the tomato seedlings. These pre-made tunnels are thick sheet plastic, with half-circle hoops built in. They are easy to use and simple to fold up and store. Each tunnel was under $20 and I can use them for many seasons. But I only had two of them. The other photo (on the right) shows two more beds, the eggplants under a floating row cover (right side of photo) and more tomatoes covered in a double layer of whatever saved plastic I had around (left side of the photo)(plastic from a furniture purchase, scavenged shipping material...). I had purchased some bendable hoops last year (also reusable) and, voila, my hacked thermal covers for my plants. I do occasionally purchase something for the garden, but also like to make do with found materials.

If you do put up covers, make sure to take them off when outdoor temps approach 80 degrees. As is the case in central VA, we might be chilly the next few nights, but Thursday it is expected to hit 90 degrees!

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Garden Quotes

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." Cicero

"The only thing two gardeners agree on is that the third is wrong." Mike McGrath

" If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.” Audra Foveo

"The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies" G. Jekyll

"What I like about gardening is that it makes a mockery of intentions" Mirabel Osler

"The best place to find God is in the garden. You can dig for him there." George Bernard Shaw

"A familiar irony of horticulture is that gardeners desire plants that are the most difficult to obtain." Judith Sumner, 2004

"A traveller should be a botanist, for in all views plants form the chief embellishment." Ch. Darwin, 1839

"How fair is a garden amid the trials and passions of existance" Benjamin Disraeli, 1845

"Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time." Georgia O'Keeffe

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change" Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), 5th Century B.C.E.

"Whatsoever whether great or small ugly or handsom sweet or stinking... everything in the universe appears beautifull to mee." John Bartram, 1740

"In my examination of orchids, hardly any fact has so much struck me as the endless diversity of structure for gaining the very same end, namely, the fertilization of one flower by the pollen of another." Charles Darwin

"Who has ever dreamed of finding an utilitarian purpose in the forms and colours of flowers?" Thomas Huxley

"When I observe the fate of Botanists, upon my word I doubt whether to call them sane or mad in their devotion to plants" Linnaeus 1737

About Me

I am a 50-something mother of one involved in all sorts of pursuits, from gardening to crafting to botanical illustration and I teach part time at a local University. I believe in organic as a method and way of life and making and growing things as a way to keep me happy!